Council schedules public hearing on ambulance-fee ordinance for April after questions from fire commissioners

Council introduced Ordinance 895, which would establish fees for emergency medical services and ambulance transport and amend the borough code to authorize centralized collection and billing.

During the meeting, a speaker who identified himself as "M Myers" and said he was a fire commissioner asked whether fees collected centrally by the township would be shared with volunteer fire districts that provided ambulance responses. He asked specifically how the township would reimburse the Hopewell Borough Board of Fire Commissioners when a call was staffed entirely by volunteers.

Council members said the proposed framework envisions central collection and redistribution in proportion to participating districts and that billing would be directed primarily to insurers, with protections for uninsured patients. The council agreed to seek clarifications and to place the public hearing on the ordinance on the April meeting agenda to allow staff to provide clearer language about collection and distribution mechanisms.

The transcript shows council members asked staff to confirm the administrative mechanisms and return with sample language and answers at the next meeting.